Arsenal v Bayern: self-preservation …… the first law of nature

The long awaited moment has finally arrived. The Bavarian brigade have descended on London. Time for nervous anticipation and a bit of trepidation perhaps. Following their survival from the Group of Death, a fresh challenge awaits the good guys of Arsenal. What can be more daunting than to face Bayern Munich, the “best team in the world”, in the first leg of a dance unto death?

Neither is this the first time. Last year as well, Arsene Wenger’s men played Bayern in a first leg at The Home of Football, and they lost 1-3. An outrageously superb return leg victory by 2-0 still saw Arsenal crash out of Champions League on away goals. Bayern Munich went on to win the Champions League in Europe followed by the World Clubs Cup.

However, daunting as the challenge no doubt is, there are some positive notes of encouragement this time round.

First, the away win against Bayern in Munich sparked a remarkable run for Arsenal, leading to an amazing record over the calendar year 2013; by and large, this run of performances and results still continues.

Second, Arsenal have had occasional indifferent performances, but the positive vibes from the FA Cup win against Liverpool are fresh in the minds and hearts. This is in sharp contrast to last year, when they went into the game against a disappointing loss to Blackburn. Quoting Arsene from yesterday: ““We have a strong team spirit, that is for sure, and a strong desire to do well and a united team. … We did not always have the belief, because belief is built by the results and on that front we are stronger.”

Third, Bayern were the champions last year, and are favourites this year. But they are not yet champions again, and the law of averages indicates they may falter at some step. And after the heroic display by our boys last year, it is quite possible that the massive fall from grace may happen here and now, against the mighty Arsenal.

Fourth, Bayern were a formidable unit last year, and they still are. But are they better than last year? Well, the core of the team is essentially the same, and the main difference is the new manager – the master craftsman Pep Guardiola. By contrast, Arsenal have a new magnificent wizard, Mesut Ozil, plus a lovely bunch of upcoming stars in The Ox, Wilshere and Gnabry. On balance, the relative changes in team strengths seem evenly matched.

On the injury front as well, it seems fairly balanced. Arsenal are missing two key players in Ramsey and Theo. Bayern have sustained injuries to Ribery, Shaqiri and Badstuber; Schweinsteiger is returning from injury and may not feature in the game.

Fifth, Bayern have been mighty impressive in the Bundesliga this year. But they get to play largely weaker teams in the German league. Whereas Arsenal has fought hard against the Oilers, and is therefore potentially better tempered by their fighting performances. The motivation and spirit within the team is very high. Yes, there was a minor incident involving the truancy of one Olivier Giroud, but that cancels off against the reportedly unsettled Kroos in the Germand side.

Overall, it looks even stevens. It remains to be seen who turns up on the night. Who has the greater desire to perform well. Arsenal’s defensive performance will be under particular spotlight. Not conceding an away goal will be particularly crucial.

On the line-up, the goalkeeper and defence select themselves. The primary objective to my mind will be to withstand an immensely potent Bayern attacking force, likely comprising midfielders Robben, Kroos and Muller and frontman Gotze. With this in mind, I would suggest Flamini and Wilshere as defensive midfielders, and an attacking midfield of Rosicky, Ozil and The Ox. Rosicky may moving back in defence and Wilshere likewise move up in attack.

And finally, here is the bombshell. Given disciplinary issues, including a disregard for team curfew the night before a game, I would not be averse to Wenger allowing Giroud some more bench warming time. Football is a team game, and no one is indispensable within the team. Podolski is the striker in my starting lineup. He has just scored a fantastic team goal against Liverpool, and so his confidence should be high. Santi scuffed shooting opportunities twice gainst Liverpool and does not appear to be fully fit. He will be on the bench as well, in preparation to launch a salvo when the need comes.

However, the Boss knows best. We will see what team emerges. The bottomline is to fight hard in the midfield and break down opposition attacks, and a tight and compact backline to thwart any advances that may trickle through. The priority is not to concede an away goal to Bayern. There will be chances at the other end, and we should be eager to take these chances.

All to play for. Onwards and upwards!

COYRRG!!!!

Written by arnie

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223 Responses to Arsenal v Bayern: self-preservation …… the first law of nature

Lovely write up arnie and this is in my mind the biggest test we have faced all season.
I can’t remember a game for a long time where despite playing at Home we are huge underdogs and with all respect to Wenger keep mentioning that the squad have a new found mental strength the physical strength is just as important and though I maybe contradicting myself Ithink we may benefit more by not playing Wilshere as European refs blow the whistle for the slightest of touches and furthermore we don’t really know how fit Jack is.
It is imperative that we start as if we mean business and get right in their faces,none of this casual,lack lustre opening 10/15 minutes that we have seen far too much recently.
We can beat anyone on our day but Bayern are the form team in the world so not conceding will play just as much as scoring.

Super upbeat PM arnie. I know many think I err on the side of pessimism but I really think we can overcome BM over 2 legs.

I was at the home game last year (I think I was sitting with chas) and I remember saying at 1:2 , this is not the end of the world as long as we don’t concede a 3rd 😦 We went all out to get the equaliser and were hit with a sucker punch on the break, it was that last goal that cost us the tie.

So I agree with you, we must keep it tight tonight. A draw or even going behind by 1 goal wouldn’t be a disaster. Obviously we have it in our ability to get a win – but that could create the wrong mind set for the return leg – I hate it when we try to preserve a lead.

Odd as it may sound, a draw tonight probably gives us the best chance of winning this time round.

Point 5 for me is key. With this unbelievable endorsement from the German FA that gives Bayern first choice of every star footballer in the Bundisliga, all they have done is taken a strong league and made it very weak. There is no challenge to Bayern’s dominance and as a result, since their last CL game at home to City, They’ve played 9 competitive games and won 9. Scored 28 goals and conceded 2.

I believe they’ve had things very easy in the Bundisliga and I have a sneaky feeling they will carry that sense of how easy their results are into the Emirates.

Arsenal will be key here though. We have to be cautious and feel our way into the game. We can’t go guns blazing like we did at Anfield and at City. Bayern will punish us. Arsenal must defend the last man, stick like glue to Gotze and don’t breath on the master cheat Robben.

This is the game that Ozil will announce himself. I don’t know why. But I have a really good feeling.
COYG!!!

I think we should just make sure that we give ourselves a good chance to go through before the next leg in Munich. What does that mean concretely? Limit the goals conceded. If we go to Munich 1-1 or 0-0, we are in good shape…If we go there with a victory, even better but we need to be solid tonight.

Am I mad to think that Sanogo played in the FA Cup, so that Bendtner will start this match? Assuming that Giroud would be diciplined, or not in the right mindset to compete. Podolski to come on later, after Arsenal has survived the first half.

The bookies’ odds against Arsenal are ridiculous. I think the most likely outcome is a draw but to make us such underdogs is crazy. But that’s all good, underdogs will do for me. Our defence is better than last season. Let’s hope that Ozil sees playing against Bayern in the same way Cesc performed against Barca (forgetting the backheel 😦 )

I suppose one of the questions we should ask is – how different are we as a team compared to last year? Well at least 2 of the players in the pic in the post won’t feature, but we’ve got Ozil, the defence is more solid and we’ve spent most of the season so far top of the league (despite GiE’s swingometer 😕 )

Thanks everyone. A nervy day. Yes, 0-0 will be the best result realistically for me. We have to break down Bayern attacks. The signs are good. We have been challenging better in the midfield in the past couple of games. If we can keep the defence tight, we can do this. 😀 😀 😀

Am really excited about this match and am also badly frightened.We may play with a handbrake,defend well and hit on counter but where is the pace against a very fit German team?But i just have this feelings that we will surprise the football world today.

Hi GN5, there is no reason why we couldn’t score in Munich. Obviously a 0-0 is best, but I think there will be goals. I predicted 2:2 for this game about a month ago – maybe I have kelsey’s talent for looking into the future 😆

Excellent pre match Arnie, I think you’ve just written yourself into the vacancy of Big Raddy’s deputy. 🙂 🙂

I have to take issue with one of your points re. disciplining Olly for his nocturnal escapades.

If it is purely on the basis of him breaking curfew then, of course, it’s necessary, but if it’s for his alleged lothario-like behaviour then I say pish-tosh.

Whatever two consenting adults do (or not do) is totally none of our business and far too much self-righteous, puritanical bullshit is written about how sportsmen should behave.

I also don’t buy into the fallacious argument that off field distractions necessarily affect on field performance; if anything they provide an escape from them and probably improve performance.

Anyone remember when Lee Bowyer and Jonathon Woodgate were awaiting trial for beating up a Pakistani? While this was going on Bowyer was in the form of his life as on the pitch was the only place to escape his troubles. It had no negative effect on him whatsoever.

So in conclusion the decision to pick Olly should be made purely on footballing reasons and not some hypocritical, arbitrary moral code that some commentators/red tops are screaming for Wenger to adopt.

Congrats, GN5. That will be some jubilee. After the private celebrations, can we please have a party somewhere to which all of us are invited? 😛

Thanks, Chary and Norfolk. My point was only about discipline and agreed rules. What one does outside as consenting adults is outside football. There is a social responsibility thing that Arsene talks about, role models and all that, but about this I hold my judgment. 😀

I do not necessarily think Giroud should not be played. My point is that, (a) if Arsene were to do so on disciplinary grounds it would be OK by me, and (b) personally, I dont think Poldi would be a substantially poor alternative. 😀 😀

I think last seasons home game could have been very different if it wasn’t for one incident. Namely the first goal…..and the events that led to it. Most people blamed Ramsey but I placed the blame on Arteta, with the opportunity to clear his lines he chose a four yard pass to Ramsey in his own area.

Would Flamini do that? Probably not so Arteta’s absence could be a blessing tonight.

I met up with GoonerB this morning and had a very interesting discussion about our attacking options.

He thinks along the same lines as Micky – we should play with a quick, mobile tricky, 2 footed finisher up front as opposed to a big guy to try to hold the ball up …… one more vote for The Ox in the Box. I’m coming round to that way of thinking myself.

If we turn up from the start I feel optimistic but if we do the usual,
of bottling it & showing them to much respect, then I think it will be similar to last years result.
I think a massive loss for us is Theo, so I believe Ox has got to start as in your team.
I would go play Giroud though & would also be tempted to play Carzorla instead of Rosicky.
I do think we need to give Pod more game time & would definitely bring him on with 30mins to go, if it wasn’t going our way.

Hopefully though we will not show fear (a problem I believe we normally suffer from) & can play our normal game.
If we can do that I think we have a very good chance.

Watching Barca last night I was struck by just how rarely the moves finished with the man in the middle. It was all about runners from deep.

That’s why I think we can play with OG up front, we just need the midfield to go past him to finish the moves he helps to create.

Having had a luxury of many goal scoring centre forwards I think it hard for us fans to come to terms with the fact that a centre forward doesn’t have to score a lot of goals to be effective. If the team stop going past him our attack becomes toothless, I’m all for Ox being in the box I just think he needs to be breaking from deeper to make it effective. The same goes for Pod as his goal on Sunday highlighted.

What I found fascinating was Barca’s stop start form of attack, from a walkabout they suddenly sprinted and frequently caught out the City defense. The second goal came after a brief period of walking with the ball.

Watching last night I was strangely disappointed with Barca, at first their passing and movement was enthralling, in the first 16 minutes they completed 141 passes to City’s 41, but it was all completely sterile, not a single attempt on goal. Perhaps the plan was to draw the city defence out and leave space behind them but that didn’t seem to work at all.

When Barca did eventually score, dubious penalty, foul outside the box? they seemed content with a one nil lead and played at walking pace, while City seemed equally content with a one nil deficit before waking up to the fact that they were capable of creating a few scoring opportunities of their own.

The Fabregas off-side was a travesty, but maybe evened things up for the penalty decision, while only Alves seemed intent on seriously attacking. His reward a well taken goal that should see the end of City’s Champions League aspirations for this season.

There’s no doubt in my mind that Ollie will play – he’s our first choice centre forward and, as Norfolk says, any disciplinary action by the club will already have happened.

So with Ollie up front, it’s a question of who plays behind him. I would go Oxo on the right, Ozil in the middle and Pod on the left. Ozil and Pod will really want to show their stuff tonight in a game that will be watched by every football fan in Germany (in a World Cup year). Ditto the BFG.

So for me the only question is whether we play Flam and TR7, or Flam and Wilshere. I think I would prefer the former but I expect AW to go with the latter…

very good PM arnie! You are going to get Raddy out of his job 🙂
I think your points pro us winning are superb, but football is a funny old game. You can tick all the boxes and come unstuck. It’s enough to look at the results of our 2 last meetings with Pool – does it make any sense to anyone? No. So for me – anything can happen tonight. I am neither excited nor optimistic – nervous if anything. But I rather suspect us to lose – is it all right Micky? Late enough for a bit of gloom?

There is absolutely nothing wrong with sex before a match provided there is a little discretion, and as for myself, I am also in favour of it during a game too, if I can find someone willing and able. 🙂

While I am in the mood for being agreeable, I completely concur with my colleague and good friend, CharyB @ 1:07, in that any prurient interest in punishing Giro for a bit of tickle my fancy is quite unacceptable, and as I have previously said it is a matter between him and his wife, and I am sure she is well able to administer suitable chastisement on her own account. 🙂

Any punishment should be confined to a slap on the wrist for smuggling a flappy mouthed gold digger onto the premises.

The one thing I should make clear is that CharyB was NOT recommending that Giro should beat up an innocent Pakistani to improve his performance – on the pitch – a la that toe rag Bowyer!! 🙂

I am not sure that it is right, among superstitious folk like me, to offer congratulations before a wonderful milestone, so can I get around that by offering you my felicitations on the forthcoming special event!! 🙂

Look, don’t worry guys, I am quite capable of filling up the idle hours until kick off on my own.

After all, Norfolk is no doubt having his afternoon nap, or partaking of a pre-match preprandial, and Rocky is up in the mountains, making money and god knows what the Cockie one has done to our mascot Terry Syrup! 🙂

Afternoon all, and chapeau for that exiled in Scotland geezer, goes by the name of arnie.

I feel strangely relaxed about tonight’s festivities – I don’t expect us to progress in the competition, and to be honest, I do think we’ll lose the game tonight. But I don’t mind, we’ll be playing one of the world’s best teams, and as a football junkie, that’s good enough for me.

Not that anyone should write us off. It amazes me how quickly pundits seem to have forgotten that the mighty Bayern only disposed of us last year on away goals. I heard a journo yesterday say something like “How will Arsenal cope, playing the side that swept past Barcelona 7-0 in aggregate last season?” Well, let’s first consider that when we played them, the score was 3-3. Sheesh…..

One thing that struck me about Bayern in the second leg last year was that they were absolutely paralysed, they just couldn’t lift themselves. And even for chunks of the CL Final against Dortmund, they seemed to be having some problems getting into gear. As I say, I expect them to win tonight, but I can easily imagine things going in a different direction tonight.

Anyway, let’s make sure we all enjoy the evening – three hours to go and counting………

RA @ 4:17: re sex during a game, EPL referees are familiar with the practice, particularly Howard Webb, who’s been buggering Man U opponents for years. Based on this past weekend, he’s also capable of doing it to both sides…..

……”Bayern Munich are unbeaten in the Champions League since that game on March 13 2013 and, furthermore, unbeaten in all domestic competitions in Germany under new boss Pep Guardiola.

In fact, not only were the Gunners the last team to keep a clean sheet against Bayern Munich but they were the last team to beat the Bavarians at the Allianz Arena in all competitions and have held that record for 11 months which will surely give Arsene Wenger’s side the belief they can avoid conceding this evening and go on to get a result in the second leg”

Not so sure about last year,did we see the real Bayern as the game was effectively lost in the first leg, but I suppose we will never know.

With regards to tonight I would rest Wilshere.He is not in top form, I believe isn’t 100% fit and as usual would get targeted a lot. Does he bring something extra to a game like this ? To be honest I am not sure.

If we play not to lose, it could be fateful and goes against Wenger’s philosophy,so a middle ground needs to be the game plan tonight.

great post on a big day – I am an Arnie fan ! I agreed with Trent on point 5 – Bayern used to weaker league opposition,– but I’m afraid they know that we are the toughest draw they could have in this round. so there are no surprises, they will be well prepared.

Rasp, (and Goonerb) I also have wondered whether Ox should be tried up front– even Gnabry in the future for the same reasons – trickery, speed, causing havoc- they have both shown they can earn penalties with their speed and footwork- that’s something we almost never get- and NO, im not talking about diving – just putting so much pressure on defenders that they end up making mistakes.
plus Ox and Gnabry are not lightweight- that’s what sets them apart from players like sterling, and makes them much better prospects for our league.
with Ramsey out, I actually prefer Chamberlains talent helping in midfield, because he brings the athleticism I think we need there, because of Artetas physical shortcomings. I would give Gnabry more game time on the wing than Arsene has.
But for today, I expect Jack to play and to excel. I think he likes the big stage, he’s had some rest ( I would never, ever play jack 2 matches in a week )- and I think he has great memories against Peps teams in the past.

Trenthscreenwriter: I can assure you the the Deutsches Fussball verband (DFB) has nothing to do with endorsing players for Bayern or any other German club. German players want to go to Bayern simply because they are the best in Germany and Bayern can out bid any other German club.

Arnie, super post. The key to success is not to give up an away goal. I would be happy with a 0-0 as then anything can happen in Bayern and we would have an advantage if we score in Bayern. Of course a 2-0 win tonight would make me a very happy man especially as I will be watching the game live on German skysports with about 9 German friends who will all be shouting for Bayern. Hopefully I can keep them quiet!!!

GN5. If we can go through to the next round at the expense of Bayern then surely that would be a massive morale booster to continue on a good streak in the EPL. If and a big if, we beat Bayern over two legs who is to say we cant go all the way, ok maybe I am dreaming somewhat but I am ever hopeful 🙂

THE SHOEBOX
A man and woman had been married for more than 60 years. They had shared everything. They had talked about everything. They had kept no secrets from each other except that the little old woman had a shoe box in the top of her closet that she had cautioned her husband never to open or ask her about.

For all of these years, he had never thought about the box, but one day the little old woman got very sick and the doctor said she would not recover.

In trying to sort out their affairs, the little old man took down the shoe box and took it to his wife’s bedside. She agreed that it was time that he should know what was in the box. When he opened it, he found two crocheted dolls and a stack of money totalling $95,000.

He asked her about the contents.
‘When we were to be married,’ she said, ‘ my grandmother told me the secret of a happy marriage was to never argue. She told me that if I ever got angry with you, I should just keep quiet and crochet a doll.’

The little old man was so moved; he had to fight back tears. Only two Precious dolls were in the box. She had only been angry with him two Times in all those years of living and loving. He almost burst with Happiness.

‘Honey,’ he said, ‘that explains the doll, but what about all of this money? Where did it come from?’

RA @ 4:25 – that will learn him not to swan off on a holiday during the critical part of the season. Why can’t he, like everybody else, go during internationals or even better – summer break? If he is made redundant, he has only himself to blame

As far as I am concerned Jack has to play alongside the flamester in the absence of Arteta. Also for me Cazola should sit out the first hour at which point Arsene can make a decision. This was a game made in heaven for Ramsey and Theo and they will both be missed tonight, when pace will be important so come on the OX

Evening all. A fine pre-match Arnie and interestingly I had the same line up as you in mind. I also dropped Ollie to the bench but not due to any tittilation in the Travelodge, but more because I feel the lack of pace up top with him would hand certain advantages to Bayern.

The one thing I would do differently would be to play the Ox up top (almost like a false 9) and Pod to his left. I feel the extra pace of the Ox will keep the Bayern defenders more worried with balls in behind and I would like to see the Ox spin off the CD’s into the wide channels away from them onto through balls when we look to break from deep quickly, rather than the normal ball into Ollie centrally while he tries to hold of the CD’s. From there he can hold up the play while the cavalry arrive. If he spins wide left then it would also allow Pod to angle into the centre so that the 2 of them could almost dovetail at times between each others positions.

For a long while I have always felt the Ox would make a top number 10 more like a Rooney than a Gerrard. At 5’11” he is no giant but no midget either and would be around the same size as Suarez. Add to that his pace, body strength, eye for goal, and the ability to take on defenders and strike the ball off both feet, and I feel he has all the right attributes and could play that role for us. It would likely stop the Bayern defenders from pressing a high line and would create more midfield space for our maestros to weave their majic. I just feel this type of set-up would suit us better at the moment against the top sides and would cause them more problems than playing any of Giroud, Bendtner, Podolski or Sanogo as the spearhead of the attack.

I was outlining my devilish plans to an erstwhile gentleman earlier. He knows an awful lot about football as was nodding sagely, but I am not sure whether he was convinced by me on the tactical switch of Oxlade-Chamberlain through the middle and Podolski slightly deeper to the left as oppose to the other way round. What we did agree was that it was very unlikely that AW would set up like this anyway so that was a waste of good typing time..

I have a complaint to the admin. I used to talk to dog walking Arsenal supporting ladies in the park. Yes, some women like talking about footy, admittedly from a different perspective, ie hair cuts, new kits, if their wives had babies, etc. But since I started here on AA you lot brainwashed me with formations and tactics, and now the girls don’t want to talk to me about Arsenal

Mickey we are privileged to have a team that gets to play CL every year, will sit back and enjoy tonight win or lose. There are 500 plus professionals at other PL clubs who would give there all to change places with us.

True dandan. I was speaking to a very old Spurs chum of mine today, and saying how much I was looking forward to the return win, lose or draw tonight. He agreed about the experience being so important.

Sonogo. Very interesting. Reckon Pantsdown took one in the sensitive region from ‘Err Indoors. Painful and thus on the sick list. Ouch 😦

Our paths cross at last. Been meaning to have a quiet word with you.
You mentioned something the other day about that idiot Didit being a good surfer. Let’s be quite clear on this, enthusiastic is what he is. Good, oh no.

I did not believe me, either! just trying to smoke you out, and see if you were in cahoots with that Exile re the ‘flat Hawaiian Islands, which just happen to be the tips of ginormous, mainly underwater volcanoes with their ‘tips’ sticking out! 🙂

Mickey I was on the beach at Eilatt Israel, Decided to go into changing room and change out of my swimming trunks, in the middle of this a very attractive young lady came in and went into the shower which had no curtains and began to remove her wet suit under the running shower. She pulled it down towards her waist and I saw she had nothing on under it. I panicked grabbed my gear and ran out to rejoin my wife on the beach. She couldn’t stop laughing said I had no bottle.

Is this why you do surfing, is this a regular bonus you get for belonging to the club

RA
Re the Exile comments. I actually interpreted some crossed wires between mountains and built up coastlines.
Me, I’d love to go there.

By the way, aren’t you in Wichupichu or something. The iconic surf film was made in the sixties by a Californian, Endless Summer. They went to NY to see backers for distribution who said it would only work in sunny seaside places, so they took it to screen as far as poss from the sea. Waccupaccu or wherever it is you be. Record snowfall greeted its opening. It was packed for the weeklong run, So they booked a second week. Ditto. Fullski.

I am just bumming around staying with friends and relatives – which sometimes means I have to miss Arsenal games – as some of them think it is a perversion, and they pray for me to give up my Brit ways – and that is only just worse than being from NYC. 🙂

Many many many years ago, I played in a band (really badly in my case). We were playing a gig in Paris, and between bands, two girls came into the dressing room. Said nothing. Stripped down to very little then disappeared. We “oh ok’d” and thought this must be normal in France. Two minutes later they dashed back in stark bollock naked, got clobber back on and vanished. Again, we shrugged, and “oh ok’d” each other.

great opening save by Szsney then all Arsenal. Why oh why did Ozil take the penalty.That’s two lame efforts on the trot. We really rattled them and then Gibbs get injured and monreal is and will be targeted all night. Kos magnificent then Szsney ses red which is a debate on it’s own,why one keeper sees red one sees yellow.
Sanogo’s threw ball to ox was magnificent.
We have a fight on now but bayern will be wondering how goof and well organised we are.

Shame Mesut missed, shame referee chose not to book Boateng a second time for the foul on Wilshere, if he hadn’t been on yellow he would have seen yellow. Szczesny red card ref had little choice but think he could have got away with a booking considering where Robbens touch went. Contact was minimal too.

But unlike last night it worked and he missed the pen.

All to play for….2 subs down there are going to be a lot of tired legs, need to conserve energy and break when we have good opportunity to.

Sanogo’s doing ok but we may need Giroud for more hold up work, which means everyone else has to put a shift in.

Like Keksey didn’t fancy Ozil with the pen…..but when we got it I couldn’t really think of anyone else except Gibbs or Ox….generally that’s to do with the way they are both so upright in stature which gives an impression of confidence. So not based on any science.

If only Ozil had scored, if only Gibbs hadn’t been injured and if only Szsney hadn’t been sent and stupidly gestured to the crowd.
We more than matched them for 35 minutes. so who knows what might have happened.

To be fair 11 v 11 we were giving them a game…..we should have been 1-0 up before Szczesny goes off but if we were 1-0 up that might not have happened at all.

Shame we couldn’t keep it to 1, there was no need for Jack to launch the ball to Koz looking for an equaliser and there was no need for Koz to have been going forward, he had already busy a gut taking us out of defence.

I know Arsene kept Ozil on because he was worried about ball retention as much as defensive shape but personally I would have put him in front of Bacary and given Ox and later TR7 the job of helping Nacho against Robben.

All in all I wasn’t that impressed with Bayern, they are a lot more dangerous with Ribery in the team.

Hard to blame Szcz – as Redders say, what’s he supposed to do? It’s the “triple penaliser” rule that’s wrong: 1) the opposition have a penalty; 2) you’re down to 10 men; 3) your player is suspended for the next game.

Bit disappointed we didn’t keep it to a one goal deficit. I thought it was nuts to take that quick free kick to Koscielny – of all people – in the centre forward position. We definitely weren’t “set” right in the run-up to their second goal.

Ah well, if we’re going to get knocked out, better to get knocked out by the best team in Europe and after a valiant 10-man effort. It shouldn’t be too demoralizing for the lads.

I was thinking the exact opposite of last year would be nice, you know, getting away with the away goal. But it’s true that Arsene doesn’t like the away goal rule, and it wouldn’t be nice to have all the pundits and haters reminding him that if we went through like that… So 3-0 it is !

That second goal left me feeling a bit deflated. A 1-0 would have felt like some reward for the effort the entire team put in. The refereeing today was generally very good. Shame that the sending off spoilt what would have been a very entertaining game. My initial reaction was that a yellow was deserved because the ball ran away from Robben. But I suppose the case could be made that it wouldn’t have if he hadn’t been hit.

We’re not entirely out of it though. The first 35 minutes or so showed us that we well and truly belong at the highest level. But I think they also showed that we are just a little way off of being what we would like to be. I know it goes without saying, but that penalty should have been scored. But when it was missed, the team lost its way. We should not have let that take away our momentum as a side.

Also, maybe we need just a little more time together as a team, but we should have showed a little more even with 10 men. That is less criticism than an observation. It can be done. We’re good enough, and hopefully by next year, our evolution will be complete.

But for this season, we still have the second leg. The quarter final of the FA cup, and the 12 league games left. Hopefully Gibbs isn’t out for too long.

Just to mention Sanogo. He barely got to do anything going forward the entire second half, but he never looked out of place in the team. That’s Liverpool and Bayern he’s now played against and not looked outclassed. A very good beginning.

I’m on my way back from the game and can’t believe what I’m hearing on the radio. I’m really proud of our boys. We were more than a match for them when it was 11 v 11. I am however disgusted at the 10% or so of our ‘supporters’ who flooded out when they scored the 2nd goal – disgraceful

Well, I enjoyed that. Yeah, I know, 2-0 defeat at home, with a missed pen and a red card is all a bit tough to swallow, but expectations weren’t that high (at least not chez 26), and there was plenty to like.

The thing is that triple whammy that Rocky mentioned. I’m all for decent punishments for offences, but sending off keepers in that situation really isn’t right. There has to be a distinction between the cynical fouls and the fouls that arise from genuine attempts by keepers to play the ball. An outfield player has more of a choice when there’s a goal-scoring opportunity as to whether he makes the challenge or not (see Demichelis last night), but a keeper facing an oncoming striker is in an entirely different situation, he has to go for it. And sending off a keeper when a penalty has already been awarded seems wrong, it doesn’t make sporting sense, and every punishment in a sport must make sense in terms of the sport in question. And that’s before we even think about the keeper being suspended for the next game. In fact, I’d say it’s a quadruple whammy, since we also had to use up one of our subs and drag off one of our attacking players in order to have a new keeper on the pitch.

It’s not just unfair on the team (us tonight), it also perverts the sporting contest, since we were lined up to face one of the best teams in the world for an entire half with only ten men (and already having lost a player to injury, and therefore leaving Wenger only one sub to use). The game, which had been a fascinating and even contest, was defined by the mandatory red card for Szczesny, and that is a real shame, it demeans the contest, rather than enhance it.

Although Bayern weren’t on top of their game tonight, they used their second half advantage as well as anyone I’ve seen – too often a team with one more player fails to realise the advantage it has, and runs up against the depleted side’s newly erected brick wall. But Bayern tonight combined consistently good passing and movement with concentration when they needed to get possession back to make real sense of their numerical superiority. They weren’t very efficient at creating chances but eventually we cracked.

And well done to Guardiola for subbing Boateng at half time – he was one foul away from a second yellow, so avoiding the teams being quickly levelled up was a smart move.

Correction 26 he should have already received a second yellow for a foul on Jack in our half when we were about to go on another counter.

Rasp agree with fans leaving at 2-0, they might have well left at 1-0 if all they were staying for was some miracle comeback. FairPlay to those left behind made ample noise to make up for those departed.

Sky focussed on an incident between Flamini and Ozil where Flamster is giving him a bollocking got not tracking, Ozil shrugs him offas we have seen him do to BFG previously.

Ballack seemed to think that perhaps Ozil hasn’t been accepted by his teammates yet. I wonder if there is any truth in that, we are not a squad of big time charlies, do we think Ozil has upset the apple cart within the squad?

Poor John Cross posted this on twitter….then started getting pelters about that back page…..seems he was unaware and says that he wishes someone would have warned him so he could have put his tin hat on.

At 11 vs 11 it was a good contest. Arsenal bang in it. As soon as it went to 10 vs 11, just forget it. Arsenal did well to only lose 2-0.

Not sure if it’s been well publicised but the club funded the card display before kick off last night, Red Action have been tweeting thanks to the club for agreeing to fund and also the fans for getting there early enough to make it look so good.

Exile
Funny and true story.
When I started my first business, ends did not meet, so had evening/weekend jobs. One in an off license on The Kings Road (World’s End).
One day, this sodding great 60 something yr old rasta came in, clearly off his tits. After spending an age staring at the fag/rizla shelf he said, and speaking really, really slowly:
“How much de king size rizla?”
“10p”
Long, long pause.
“How many packs in de box?”
“40”
Long, long pause.
“How much de box?”
“4 quid”
Long long pause.
“I take 10 buxes”

LB
If you and I ever fall on hard times, I’ve had a genius idea. We breed sliding cats. Get a long and thin cheap industrial unit, say Acton, lino floor it, breed pussies, and right from the off, train them to slide. Remember, I am a qualified sea lion trainer, so know what I’m doing. At least £100 quid a pop I reckon. Wha d’ya reckon?

I am gutted, we started so well I couldn’t believe that it was our team. I don’t know what Szcz could do, I am not a goalkeeper. But any actions that could result in him being sent off were worse then conceding a single goal. It would have been better if he scored the goal himself. I have no doubt that he lost us the game. One down with 11 men we had a chance of at least a draw. With Gibbs injured and Szcz off, and only 1 sub remaining we had no chance

No I don’t blame Scez, he done what any goalkeeper would be expected to do, I blame the ref as he didn’t need to send him off even if he was following the rules as Robben had taken it wide & 2 of our defenders were running in & the ref didn’t exactly abide by the rules when he failed to give Boateng his 2nd yellow card 10 minutes earlier did he.

Evonne and Micky, there is a distinct difference between Szczesny coming out and Demechelis tackle on Messi, Messi still had Hart to beat, Szczesny was isolated and tried to do something to force him to take more time, obviously Robben waits for the contact after his touch, just like Ozil did.

The keeper is always the last man of defence, Robben smashes it in the goal unchallenged and everyone looks at Szczesny and says why are you still on the line. He narrowed the angle and pressured the ball as he has been taught to do since he started keeping. And no keeper has ever thought….”i’ll let them have that one” you just can’t expect

He takes a huge risk as it was a floated ball, but if you are a keeper you “have” to commit to your decision.

Now the second goal came from a very similar delivery, watch Fab1 hesitate to come at Muller, he stops half way (which is a cardinal sin for a keeper) and Muller scores easily. In fact Fab1 should probably have stayed on his line as there was an angle on the cross and Muller was stretching to meet it.

Now on the subject of denying goalscoring opportunity, Ozil turns Boateng to go back on to his right foot, and is about to shoot…..Boateng gets a booking. Why? Because the ref played a small advantage to see if Sanogo scored, and therefore wasn’t clear goalscoring? Surely not much difference to Messi being brought down with only Hart to beat?

Although I am not going to blame the ref, as its one of those ones that could go either way, but i do think Boateng was lucky to stay on the pitch especially given his foul on Jack after the penalty.

GiE – how about making yourself big and trying to stop the ball? I am sure there were many safer options for Szcz. The only worse one he could take was to headbutt Roben and then kick him in the head for good meassure. And even that would have been better, because world would be a better place without that earth worm looking git

There is such a load of old tosh being spoken about this game. The newspaper backpages with headlines like ‘Expert in failure’. I don’t know what impression was given by the TV coverage, but let me tell you all, up until the missed penalty we were more than a match for Bayern – the so called best team in the world. In fact we had the better chances. So all this bollix about Arsenal being outclassed is just lazy journalism and nonsense from so called fans who don’t understand the game.

That is 3 times we’ve had a player sent off in the latter stages of the CL where the ref could have exercised a bit of judgement.

Sanogo put in a good performance and showed a couple of flashes of skill that you don’t get with OG.

Micky – talking about business opportunities. People pay for up to £5000 for a micro pig. You go and get 2 huge beasts that are uprooting your trees and dig up the foundations of your house. And it’s not as if you were going to have a juicy pork roast one day, no, because they are pets. Good thinking.

Here’s a bit of joke journalism from this morning. The same ‘expert’ said “Bayern are the best team in the world” and “City will have a more difficult job to qualify now than Arsenal” …. priceless, what a complete twunt

I’m very angry evonne. Our 10 men put in an epic effort and at 1 nil down we were still very much in the tie. We did show our naivety once again by charging forward when we should have just continued to shut up shop and conceded the late goal. But you could not criticise the way we defended for 60 minutes apart from that.

Hi Bryan. In fact the time I nearly erupted was when there was an exodus after we conceded the second goal. I stood up and shouted at the idiots leaving and with some colourful language – I asked them where the %$^& they were going, and told them that they should stay and support the team. The morons walking out just looked embarrassed whereas I got plenty of support from those who were staying.

Rasp
maybe they had a train to catch 😉 I’m just kidding.
Yep is disappointing people leaving after team has conceded.

We battled hard but again Wenger’s substitutions baffle me,
I thought he should of taken Ozil off & left on Carzorla & even more confusing is that when interviewed he said that missing the penalty effected him, so surely then you take him off.
Gibbs was a massive loss too as Robben hadn’t been able to cut in but as soon as the hapless Monreal was on Robben started having a field day.
We really need to buy in the summer at least 3 players 2 being world class as saidly that is how football has gone & its the only chance of winning things these days.

Rasp, it was a frustrating game to watch. Many people who are Arsenal fans have the default position of venting that frustration at Arsenal, regardless of reason. It was a fantastic performance from the players, a few mistakes notwithstanding. But we faced a brilliant team, and 11 v 11 stood toe to toe with them. Even had them rocking. With a man down, we conceded basically an unstoppable goal, and one goal where we should have known better than to launch it forward. But that doesn’t take away from the effort the team put in in the face of a set of unfortunate circumstances. If people can’t see that. Well, what can you do. And all this constant hating on Ozil is ridiculous. ‘We’re bored of this toy, why didn’t you bring us another one in January. I’d specifically written to Santa, but that Grinch Wenger stole it away.’

See this is partly the reason I have started to stay away from the net. If I start thinking about it, I get as hot under the collar as you 🙂

Well played Rasp…..I often go for the subtle “these seats obviously aren’t expensive enough” but last night given the Herculean effort out in from the lads they deserved the fans support until the end and I think I would have been more than colourful…..they earned that last night.

I’m not sure I agree with you Shard, Ozil is a brilliant player but has been playing poorly for quite a while.
It is the same with any other player, if their not playing well people get on their backs & the player should be dropped.
& he’s taken 2 poor penalty’s that have looked super casual, personally I never want to see him take a pen for us again, but I still think he will come good for us once he has a season under his belt.

Guardiola: “They were much, much, much better than us in the first 10-15 min”

Disappointed with the result, but am very proud of the team. Only wished Arsenal hadn’t gambled and exposed themselves for the 2nd goal. However, I understand totally how mentally tiring and frustrating—leave alone physically demanding—it must have been to be pinned back for so long.

I happen to agree on the penalty aspect Bryan. Also, it’s another thing to say Ozil played poorly. And quite another to label him a flop or a waste of space. It’s like they’ll tear down a world class playmaker for not being a world class DM, and call him lazy for it. The amount he ran in the game won’t matter. the fact that a playmaker needs runners won’t make any difference, and the context of the game (such as yesterday) or where the entire team does poorly (like Anfield) is irrelevant. What can you call this tendency to take something good and tear it down for not being perfect, except ridiculous?